The 8-Bit Prospective- Justin Bailey

The 8-Bit Prospective- Justin Bailey

1985 proved to be a very good year for Nintendo, to say the least. They successfully launched the Nintendo Entertainment System in America (1984 in Japan), introduced us to the inviting world of Super Mario Brothers, and pretty much commanded the love and devotion of young gamers (and parents) everywhere. Nintendo's reputation for making quality games seemed to have reached what some might consider being the "legendary" status in a fairly short period of time. In 1986, a game was created that would wow the crowd once again, and prove to be a real pillar of strength that's still going strong today. That game, of course, is Metroid-- the first game to introduce us all to the cybernetic bounty hunter Samus Aran. Metroid proved to be a truly inventive title, breaking away from some of the usual elements found in most games of that era, and played a significant roll in getting rid of a certain stereotype about females common to many video games of the 80's.

As a kid sometime in the balmy summer months of 1989, I was over a friend's house enjoying the fact that I didn't start this little thing called "school" for what I thought would be a long time. While I was there, I noticed the older kids gathered around in the basement playing this interesting game featuring a girl running around in a purple bathing suit and shooting at aliens. I left the room briefly and came back, only find that this time, the character was what I thought to be a man in a yellow space suit of some kind. I said "Oh, so the game lets you play as a guy or a girl. I bet the girl is the weaker of the two!" That's pretty much where my first encounter with Metroid began and ended. I didn't get to know the fully story of the game until my brother told me, as I was watching him play the sequel on the GameBoy...but that's another story for another review.
Over the years, I came across the original game again sometime in the mid 90's, played it many times, but only beat it once. So now, after recently rebuilding my NES collection in 2003, I made sure to track down this game once again and keep it with me forever this time.

***Parts of the story are taken directly from the original instruction manual.***

In the year 2000 of the history of the cosmos, representatives from the many different planets in the galaxy established a congress called the Galactic Federation, and an age of prosperity began. A successful exchange of cultures and civilization resulted, and thousands of interstellar spaceships ferried back and forth between planets. But space pirates also appeared to attack the spaceships.

It is now year 20X5 of the history of the cosmos, and space pirates have attacked a deep-space research spaceship and seized a capsule containing an unknown life-form that had just been discovered on Planet SR388. This life-form is in a state of suspended animation, but can be reactivated and will multiply when exposed to beta rays for 24 hours. To carelessly let it multiply would be extremely dangerous. The Federation researchers had named it "Metroid" and were bringing it back to Earth-- when it was stolen by the space pirates!
The Federation Police have at last found the pirates' headquarters, the fortress planet Zebes, and launched a general attack. But the pirates' resistance is strong, and the Police have been unable to take the planet. Meanwhile, in a room hidden deep within the center of the fortress, the preparations for multiplying the Metroid are progressing steadily.

As a last resort, the Federation Police have decided on this strategy: to send a space hunter to penetrate the center of the fortress and destroy Mother Brain. The space hunter chosen for this mission is Samus Aran. He is a cyborg: his entire body has been surgically strengthened with robotics, giving him superpowers. Even the space pirates fear his space suit, which can absorb any enemy's power. But his true form is shrouded in mystery. But time is running out. Will he be able to destroy the Metroid and save the galaxy?

Metroid is a game that's all about action and exploration. Samus starts out with virtually nothing, but can gain a number of weapons and abilities that are carefully tucked away on planet Zebes. One of the cool things that set this game apart from the rest is the fact that Samus has the ability to be a very powerful force to be reckoned with, but it's not all handed to you on a silver platter. You have to go and search for the items that will grant your character that kind of power. Gamers that have never played the first Metroid before might be a little shocked to see that your default weapon doesn't initially carry very far. First, you have to find the Long Beam, then you'll be in business. This game also introduced us to the Ice Beam, Wave Beam, Screw Attack, High Jump Boots, and the Varia Suit. All of these items prove to be quite helpful, and all of them are essential to your mission one way or another. In fact, you can't possibly finish the game without the Ice Beam, even if you have the seemingly more important items in your possession.
Not to be forgotten too are the Missiles, Energy Tanks, and the Maru Mari ball. Without these items, you won't get very far in the game at all. Missiles are needed so that you can blast open those red, yellow, and purple doors. Energy Tanks are a must because they add on an extra block of 100 units of energy with each capsule that you find-- there are 6 to be collected in all. The Maru Mari ball is needed for those times when you must fit through tight spaces in the walls or floors. This ability is really fun to use once you find the Bombs that accompany your ball form and allow you to blast through enemies and cracks in the walls and floors.

A rather very clever concept went into the level design and structure of the game. Instead of merely advancing through a number of levels more difficult than the next, Metroid featured a world with different sections that could all be accessed from one main area in the game. Brinstar is the main area that connects to the other sections of the planet; and is also where the mini-boss Kraid dwells, waiting for you to cross his path. This is the area where you'll find the Varia Suit, among other things. You'll need it when you'll travel to Norfair, the fiery zone that's home to some of toughest creatures in any 8-bit game. Norfair is also home to Ridley, the more well-known enemy that still proves to be nuisance to Samus in the current Metroid games. After you defeat those two, you'll then be able to make your way to Tourian, where you'll get a chance to say "hi" to the life-draining Metroids that patrol the area. Not to mention, you'll also get to finally come face to face with brains (no pun intended...mostly) behind your troubles-- Mother Brain. Although there are only 3 main areas in the game, Brinstar and Norfair have their own sub-sections that must be explored. So really, you have a total of 5 areas to search through before your mission is complete. What I love about this whole setup is that fact that you aren't forced to explore any one section in particular. Of course, there will be areas that you won't be able to reach without certain weapons or items, but that's all relative to what you've collected at that very moment. It gives the player freedom to go almost anywhere they want to go at any given time. Unfortunately, that kind of freedom can also have its drawbacks and even add to the game's difficulty in a negative way.

Your adventure starts off easy enough-- run around and shoot at the slow, semi-cute creatures that line the walls of Zebes. However, if you neglect to collect the proper weapons and enhancements before traveling to deeper parts of Brinstar or Norfair, you'll most likely get picked apart rather quickly by the relentless enemies that will constantly bug you. Of particular note are the insects that pop up out of pipes and fly directly at you or the slightly bigger ones that drop from the ceiling and explode a brief time later. This is mainly where the Varia Suit comes in handy; as it cuts the damage taken down to half of what it would be without the suit. Kraid and Ridley can be quite formidable at first, but if you run low on missiles or energy, you can always leave the room and restock on what you need, and then return to defeat them. In fact, if you can get past Kraid...Ridley is even easier to kill. Plus, you get a nice sum of missiles once you defeat each mini-boss!

As I mentioned before, the freedom of exploration is a bit of a double edged sword. The problem is that it's very easy to get lost in the depths of Zebes, as many rooms in certain areas look almost exactly the same as the last room you were in 30 seconds ago. I myself must admit to being a little flustered when I starting playing this game again not too long ago, since I had grown used the mapping system of Super Metroid and later games in the series. I can only imagine how some gamers inevitably must have felt if they weren't willing to invest the time needed to really get around in the game back in the day. And certainly, I'm willing to bet that if today's generation of young gamers sat down with this game, they'd eventually consult a guide of some sort only to shout out "how the heck was I suppose to know I had to do that??". Anyone who's found the Varia Suit on their own knows what I'm talking about. It also doesn't help that whenever you use a password to continue a game, your health is always reset to only 30 units. This really becomes a pain when you have 5 or 6 blocks of reserves to fill. Oddly enough, it keeps perfect count of the missiles you have left. Go figure.
So to sum it up, if you're looking for a game where half the challange is to try and not get lost to the point of giving up...this is your game. Despite this problem, there's a big sense of accomplishment that overtakes you, once you figure out what to do or where to go.

The artistic design in Metroid is also something worth noting, since much attention was given the overall atmosphere of each major section in the game. Although you'll never see the words "Brinstar", "Norfair", or "Tourian" actually mentioned in the game itself, you can easily recognize each section's environment. The cold, jutting rocks of Brinstar are the first things you'll see as you travel around Zebes. Norfair is my favorite section to look at because the environments of that area successfully convey the idea that it's really hot where Samus is. I guess it's the way ledges and ceilings have little crystal spheres hanging from them-- as if parts of the structure are slowly beginning to melt. You can tell when you've hit Tourian, because everything suddenly looks deceptively quite and sterile of any natural creatures.
Also, just the right mix of color and brightness were used in creating this game. The only real marks against the visuals of the game are the small glitches that show up in some areas when Samus is switching weapons, or moving on the screen. Also you might notice the occasional discolored brick or ledge, but it's nothing that wasn't already common to games of that era anyway. Overall, Metroid holds a nice visual style that only got better with the later games in the series.

The music that accompanied the varied environments of the game was enough to always grab your attention and keep you playing for hours. All of the tunes sort of have their own life and personality that sticks with you long after you've finished the game. For instance you'll be happily trotting along to the upbeat tempo of the upper areas of Brinstar, until you take the elevator down to Kraid's hideout. Suddenly, the music becomes cold, brooding and creepy-- letting you know that you're not in Kansas anymore. You'll always know when you're about to get an enhancement of some kind, because the music always changes to this sneaky tune, almost as if saying "What's behind this red door? Hmmm...I wonder."
Just as intriguing are the sound effects in the game. Samus can be heard running through each area of the game, to my initial surprise when I first played Metroid. It's fun to hit the mini-bosses with your weapons and hear the crazy little whines that they utter. Interestingly enough, if Samus get killed, you'll hear the same sound that Pac-Man makes when he dies. Nice.

Report Card

Gameplay: A-

Controls: B

Graphics: A

Sound: A

Replay: A+

Overall: A

So here again was another game that proved to be a very valuable mascot for Nintendo in the years to come. With its combination of action, exploration, and attention to detail, Metroid was guaranteed to be a game that wouldn't be doomed to sit on stores shelves, unwanted by the gaming masses. Even so, that wasn't the thing that won my heart about this game.
My most favorite aspect of the game is fact that Samus Aran turned out to be a woman, which is revealed if you finish the game within a certain amount of time. It was nice to see a female lead character for once, which for me also dissolved the stereotype of most girls being limited to the "damsel in distress" roll in video games. I highly recommend this game to any gamer out there looking for a nice adventure that's hard to beat in few hours. If you don't have the patience to find out certain things on your own, you might want to check out Metroid: Zero Mission. It's the same story as the first Metroid game, but with updated graphics and most importantly...a map. After completing the game once, you'll unlock the NES version of Metroid.
Either way you prefer to play this game, nothing quite replaces putting the grey cartridge into your 8-bit Nintendo and letting the sweet memories of summers past flood your mind.

Me too

Dude, we're in the same boat. Although I saw Meroid when I was younger, I never played it. I wasn't officially introduced to the series until my brother borrowed Metroid II: Return of Samus from a friend of his. Man, I will forever love that game, even though some people hate on it.
But yeah, after I beat it...I had to play the first Metroid to see how things progressed as they did.

METROID!!!!

SAMUS! METROID!! thank you spunky for reviewing the best adventure game ever made. I love this game- The level design is ingenius, the control is fun and intuitive, and Samus is the coolest video game heroine EVER!!! WoWZA!

Metroid is good

Formulas

The Metroid series has always had a perfect gaming formula that lends itself perfectly to free-roaming exploration. Samus's weapons (which you must locate as you progress through the game) are used both for exterminating enemies and reaching new areas. It's a proven form of gameplay and it's been copied dozens, if not hundreds of times throughout the years.

I was delighed to see that gameplay formula present in the modern day Metroid Prime series, which I herald as the greatest recreation of a classic Nintendo franchise to date.

Amen, bro.

Good point! I think it's great how Samus' weapons always serve a double perpose-- not merely just to boost your power a little and look cool.
That fact became very clear to me when my brother and I played Super Metroid for the first time.

Hooray Metroid!

Fun review, Spunky! I remember having to have the Nintendo Power by my side when playing this game because I always used to get lost. I still love Super Metroid the best, it had the most kick ass music.

Samus is the queen

I agree-- Super Metroid was the best out the original trilogy. I loved playing through a deeper 16-bit re-creation of Zebes. Some parts of the game were pretty darn creepy...especially when you explored the ghost ship.

Thank you, thank you!

DTJAAAAMJSLM: Dude, Yes!!! In fact, that's what made me want to hunt down the game again those few years ago. I was looking at a Metroid fansite that had photos of the manual, and I loved the 80's style art of was Samus looked like. I also liked how they showed what members of the Galactic Federation looked like. And was cool the way the story took up a few pages, instead of og being given the "half page treatment".

At first, I could only find the original cartridge with the pixelated graphics on it. But a few months later, my co-worker brough in a number of NES games that his cousin wanted to sell for cash. One of the games in the pile was the re-released version of Metroid...the one with with cooler box art. It came in a "Nintendo" bradn sleeve along with the yellow instruction manual. I was thrilled, to say the least.

love_rpgs: Hey, it's hard to resist the that early NES charm, isn't it? LOL.
I'm happy that you enjoyed the review!

Music

I thought the Metroid music was some of the best 8-bit stuff around, especially Brinstar and Tourian.

The box art? Even though the later version you've got pictured is technically better, nothing can top the silver label with the game screenshot on it from the original production run of the cartridge. Actually, it doesn't matter, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Did you know Metroid and its spinoffs have always been extremely popular in America and very unsuccessful in Japan? The first game was well-received over there, but Super Metroid was far less so, even though it was one of the top-sellers for the Super NES in the US. They considered not even releasing Metroid Prime 2 in Japan.

Points of view

littlebadwolf: Oh, the music really took me by surprise when I had Metroid back in the 90's. I still love it today because it really held up through the years.

AS far as the box art thing goes-- there's a little explination behind that. See, Metroid II on the Gameboy was the first Metroid game I had ever played. And ofcourse I also looked at the atr work on the cartridge. I loved that pose that Samus is in. It just looked so cool to me.
So a while later, I happened to see what the original box art for the NES Metroid looked like and I was a little...underwhelmed, I guess. Then a little while later, I saw the box art for the re-released version and I liked how they used that same pose of Samus and just put behind a red/yellow/blue background. So it just left a bigger impression on me.
If it's any consolation to you though, I actually own both the original cartridge and the re-released version as well.

Metroid was never all that popular in Japan?? Wow, I never knew that, dude. Thanks for the quick fact!

squike: Thanks a lot Squike! I wanted to go with a game that I had played very extensively over the years, for a change. That way, I didn't have to worry about leaveing out major information or being incomplete on this review. I'm very happy with the results.

brokenjoystiq: Ummm, yeah. I'm talking about that game.

Clokwerk1945: You know whats funny? This game seemed to be much easier to play as a kid than it is for me now. When I was little, I never ever noticed that my health always reset to 30 units when I used my password! And the music was some of the best I had ever heard from a Nintendo game...no doubt about it.

Oh yes-- I agree with you that Super Metroid isn't the best one today. But I said that Super Metroid was the best of the original three games...before Nintendo created Metroid Prime and Fusion. But yeah, I was really relieved when I play M. Prime and could see that Ninendo still kept everything that makes the Metroid series so appealing.

While I have already the classic Commando game, I haven't gotten around to Bionic Commando just yet. Now that I have Capcom Classics, I can see how the NES version was much better. Thanks for the suggestion, and I do plan review it sometime down the line.

Zero Mission is a game I actually picked up within this past month in excellent condition (box, cart, manual) for 15 bucks (CDN) -- I told myself when I saw your review here that I wouldn't post until I'd gotten through it; here I am.

This truly is one of the best series out there -- my collection consists of:

- Metroid
- MII: RoS
- Super Metroid
- Metroid Fusion
- Metroid Prime

Next on the acquisition list should be Prime 2: Echoes. I figure that only leaves Pinball and Hunters, correct?

It's getting hotter these days; with reviews like this, I'd say you're doing a great job of "Staying Frosty"!

Yep

Funny thing is...Bionic Commando isn't considered to be a direct sequel to the original Commando. It was more of a side story, I guess. Though, you are correct...you do play as Super Joe in the first Commando.

The "real" sequel is MERCS, which I just found out about that connection a few months ago. I still consider Bionic Commando to the be a true sequel, though. I mean come on-- Super Joe is mentioned in the game for cry'n out loud!

No sweat

Clokwerk1945: Hey, it's all good. I have two emulators laoded with NES and Super Nintendo games! Do what you must.

joe_mack_1: Yeah dude! It was at least 7 or 8 years that pased before I got a chance to play Metroid for myself, from the time that I originally saw it. It's one of those games that presents itself well and leaves a lasting impression well after you've seen/played it.

digitalmullet: I hear ya, friend. Don't get me wrong though...I really liked Zero Mission, but it was way obvious that the game was created to be much easire than the original. It's understandable though, since so many folks probably hated the difficulty of the first one. And at least you can still unlock the original Metroid when you finish the game!

sazuraque: Thank you for youe vote of confidence, man! If by "in the field" you're mean that I'm with a gaming magazine or website-- then no, I'm not in the field. However, I'd very much like to be full-time game reviewer/writer. It'd be nice if I could find someone who is interested in both old school game reviews, and new games as well.
I'm trying to figure out my plan of how I'm going to get into the business.

2 thumbs up!

old school memories

man i remember sitting around playing that game with my friends finding our way around and blasting enemies. I used to think that Samus was a dude, lol... i was sexist when i was young though probably in denial, but anymore i love to see video games with females in them. it gives games a better reputation and attracts more females to the gaming world. but anyways, i'll never forget that game or anytime i spent rockin the nintendo. good post bro.

Nice!

Its always pleasant to come back to 1up and see your reviews. I personally am horrible at platformers...I loved, but was horrible at super mario bros...this blog gave me a chance to live vicariously through it as most likely I'll never experience the joy of the original metroid.